Tom Waits Final

I think I'm finished. I sharpened up some details, including the jacket, which I really wasn't happy with.

Tom Waits Continued

I tightened up the rendering here and there and added some textures. I think the jacket could still use some work.

Tom Waits Sketch

Just messing around in Photoshop. Usually I don't sketch directly in the program. I usually sketch on paper, scan in my sketches and paint over them. Not this time though. This took about 90 minutes.

Captain Kirk

I started out trying to turn this into a caricature of a young Shatner, but as things went on I realized the more I distorted his features, the less it looked like him. I think I'd have an easier time with an older, lumpier Shatner, which I might do sometime in the future.

Morgan Freeman

Here's my latest painting, in my humble opinion, one of our greatest American actors, Morgan Freeman. This one had a strange process to it, that went like this: 1. Draw a colored pencil sketch of Morgan Freeman. 2. Scan sketch in and paint over it. 3. Decide the aforementioned sketch really didn't look much like Morgan Freeman at all then paint over the whole thing until it no longer resembled the original sketch, but ultimately looked a lot more like the actor.

HOW Magazine

I'm extremely honored to have been selected to paint the contributor's page for HOW Design magazine's July 2010 issue. I've been reading HOW since I first went to design school a million years ago, and now here I am with my work up front and center in the book. Art Director Bridgid McCarren was remarkably open as to what approach I should take to painting the contributors. Not only that, but I got to paint my own ugly mug and list myself among an amazingly talented group of contributors. These were all painted in Photoshop over pencil sketches. Here you can see each of the images a bit bigger:

They are, from left to right, yours truly, AIGA President Debbie Millman, David C. Baker, Principle of ReCourses consultancy, web designer extraordinaire Jason Santa Maria and Nelnet Director of Marketing Jackie Ostrowski.

Sofia Loren

My wife and I had a new baby a little over a month ago. Since then, I've been finding ways to occupy my time in the middle of the night when I'm usually sleeping. I did this last night, painting over a sketch from my sketchbook. It's actress Sofia Loren, in case I blew it and you don't recognize her.

Teddy KGB

I had kind of an odd request with this one. A friend of mine is a huge fan of the movie "Rounders," and he asked me to turn my John Malkovich painting into one where he's in character as Teddy KGB.

Locke - Final

I think I'm pretty much finished here. I'm sure I could always go back and tweak a detail here or there, but sooner or later you always reach that point where you throw up your hands and say, "looks good to me." Well, here I am.

John Locke WIP

Here's where I'm at after a couple of hours painting. You can see here some of the decisions I made along the way to raise the cheekbones and drastically lower the top of the cranium. I think the result is a much stronger likeness overall. I'll continue to tweak the painting as I go along, tightening up the details as I go along.

John Locke Sketch

Ballpoint pen sketch of John Locke from my favorite TV show Lost. I might develop this into a painting.

Painting John Malkovich

I've been extraordinarily busy lately, but I still wanted to take the time to paint this. This is Photoshop over the ballpoint pen sketch seen below. You'll notice I made a number of adjustments as I went along.

Sketchbook Dump

Busy, busy, busy lately. But I still make sure I find the time to draw every day. Here are a couple of recent sketches from my sketchbook. Both done in ballpoint pen. I'm hoping it's pretty evident who they are.

Han Solo sketch

Sketching in front of the TV. Ballpoint pen and Pentel brush pen.

Rush Limbaugh

I had a job years ago where every day my boss, a die-hard Republican, would crank up Rush Limbaugh's radio show every day right at lunchtime. Having to listen to this obnoxious loudmouth every day did as much as anything to turn me into a Democrat. This was about three hours in Photoshop.

Luke Skywalker

I actually started painting this one a few weeks ago before I got sidetracked with other projects. I finally got back to it and wrapped it up. This is Photoshop over a pencil sketch.

Marty Feldman - Finished!

This is about as far as I feel like taking this one. Really, it's more or less a glorified sketch. But it was fun.

Marty Feldman

Here's a quickie painting I did of the late great Marty Feldman as Igor from Young Frankenstein. This was about two and a half hours in Photoshop.

Joker - Nearly Done

 

I'm pretty close to being done with this one. I think I need to take a step back from it for a day or so, then check back in and decide what else I need to do to complete it.

Joker Preview

 

Teaser for a painting I'm doing of my favorite comic book villain, the Joker.